Rockets see their faults from regular season resurface in Game 1

Dwight Howard’s abysmal free-throw shooting late in the fourth quarter allowed the Blazers to crawl back into the game. ( Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle )

Toyota Center was dressed for the occasion, adorned with the usual playoff T-shirts and filled with rare levels of electricity. The Rockets had waited nine months for this moment, since Dwight Howard took a make-shift stage on that floor and gave birth to expectations far greater than before.

Three hours later, all that air was let out the building as if someone jabbed a pitch fork into a zeppelin.

The Rockets didn’t just lose in a particularly devastating way, coughing up an 11-point lead in the final 4 ½ minutes. They lost Game 1, the game they had waited so long to play, in a particularly devastating way with all the old issues – Howard’s free throw shooting, ball movement, defensive rebounding – catching up to them at the worst time.

As much as the Rockets had pledged to play their way, to steadfastly stick to their regular-season style in the post-season, playing their way included their familiar shortcomings.

There was a bright side of sorts. LaMarcus Aldridge had the best post-season game in Blazers history and Harden missed more shots (20) than he ever has in a game, and the game still came down to a final possession.

“We are upset about some of the plays that we let get away last night,” Howard said. “We will be fine. These guys are hungry. The first game wasn’t as great as we wanted it to be. It’s a seven-game series.”

The Rockets, however, reconvened at Toyota Center on Monday having to fix issues after one playoff game that they could not after 82 regular-season games.

That begins with finding a way to defend Aldridge. He had averaged 26.8 points and 15.5 rebounds in the four regular-season games before dominating Sunday’s Game 1, scoring 46 points to match the most ever against the Rockets in a playoff game, and grabbing 18 rebounds.

That immediately brought the customary post-season talk of adjustments and even a pledge from Dwight Howard to defend Aldridge himself.

“We are going to try some different matchups,” Howard said. “When I check him, he tries to get me in a lot of pick and rolls so I am probably going to check him for a good part of the game and try to keep him out of the post.”

That should help control Aldridge’s work on the offensive boards, where he grabbed seven rebounds. He scored 15 of his points off his or teammates’ offensive rebounds. But that could also open Aldridge for the mid-range shots that are normally the key to his game.

The Rockets tried Omer Asik on Aldridge in the first half, a tactic that worked well in an early-season match up in Portland. Asik, however, picked up three quick fouls (only the third was while defending Aldridge), and the Rockets never went back to the lineup after that three-minute stint.

But even Aldridge overpowered or shot over Terrence Jones, Chandler Parsons or James Harden, with the Rockets going small as they had in their win against Portland March 9, there were few double teams to force the ball out of his hands, even when he slowly backed his man down into the post. There were few efforts to front him to keep the ball out of his hands.

“We were really cognizant of trying to take the 3-point line away, probably too much so,” McHale said, citing a strength of the Rockets defense in the regular season. “We didn’t dig. We didn’t help. We didn’t do a lot of things. He’s had good games against us, but it’s a long time since a post guy has gotten loose like that on us because Dwight is a good post defender, Omer is a good post defender.”

The Rockets allowed 25 second-chance points. That also came as no surprise. They allowed the second-most in the NBA this season and the Blazers were the league’s top-scoring team off offensive rebounds.

Still, the Rockets were in a position to overcome that before they fell apart offensively on the other end. Some of that came from Howard’s four missed free throws when the Blazers were intentionally fouling him. But as the Rockets went 12 of 35 in the fourth quarter and overtime, they fell into the familiar trap of holding the ball when they need to move it most.

“We came down and we were very deliberate,” Jeremy Lin said. “We probably held the ball too much. The ball didn’t zip around and move the way it was earlier. That’s one thing we have to take a look at, late-game situations.”

No play might have better typified that than the final one, when Harden intended to drive to the basket, but instead picked up his dribble, whirling around to search for options before launching a contested fade-away jumper. He had excelled throughout the season in late-game situations, but there was nothing new about the Rockets’ bogging down.

“It can be fixed,” Harden said. “That goes to myself, giving myself up and not being so ball-hawking, getting the ball on the second and third pass. I have to do a better job.”

His other struggles, he said, can be corrected by being more aggressive. That would have him doing what he has done well throughout the season. The Rockets were not concerned about him bouncing back. The challenge will be correcting the issues that they have not repairs all season.